Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Chickens all around! I feel like Oprah...

Sooooo Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I can't believe it's 2010... I haven't written a single date right, I'll tell ya that. I think I'm in denial... ya know, kinda like a Holocaust deniar but a New Year deniar instead. A lot has happened since I spoke to you last (tons of adventure and debachery, I assure you :) ) but I'll try my best to update you without rambling or forgetting.

So over break I made use of my time by seeing friends, spending amazing quality time with family and traveling my butt off. I got to spend Christmas Eve with the Books (which is always amusing and energizing :) I love them all so much) and Christmas day with the Casebolts (such incredibly good, wonderful people. I love them all so much too!). After awesome Christmas festivities, enough food to warrant a two-week fast and a vacuum cleaner (thanks mom and dad! The general concensus of my housemates and I is that the vacuum sucks :) ) I trekked up to Lynden to spend some action-packed time with Steph and her family before she left for South Africa (which she is currently loving... not shocking, it's summer there... AND it's Africa...). We went to Boulevard park in Bellingham which was absolutely stunning (and they have a Woods Coffee Shop on the water where I basically bought my weight in Cream Cheese Brownie muffins... I guess that two-week fast was just a pipe dream). Here are some pictures:
And then we went and gave some Christmas gifts from my incredibly caring and giving Grandma Book to Coleson and his family. You should have seen the look in their eyes, it was wonderful! Coleson looks as you would expect a child with cancer to look and it broke my heart, but my heart was also happy to see him playfully engaging in a Nerf gun fight with his little brother :) Steph packed the schedule for me to see all her friends that have become my friends as well over the years and the most relaxing thing we did was make olliebolen. It's Dutch pasteries with apples and raisins that are dropped into oil and fried. Deliciously heart-clogging! Put some powdered sugar on that and voila! You might as well be wearing wooden shoes :) Steph's mom was born in Holland and she said it was a family tradition to make olliebolen right around New Years so we got to work:

I'm pretty sure Steph's mom was tired of me saying "olliebolen" in the stereotypical Dutch accent... I added lots of "yah!"'s and "onderbrokie" in there (onderbrokie is the only other word I know... it means underwear :) so I kept saying, "we're making olliebolen in our onderbrokie yah".... I know you're all imagining me saying it...). All in all it was an awesome trip and a great time.

I was only at Steph's for a day and a half and got home in the evening. The next day I hopped on the train and headed down to Portland to visit the Halls for New Years. I should have read ahead on Nostradamus' predictions, because I did NOT see the crazy adventure coming. The day I train into town is of course the day that Portland virtually shuts down due to 4 inches of snow (Spokane would be shaking its head if it had one...) But, in good ole me fashion (according to Kyle) I made friends on the train and we banded together, quite like a Band of Brothers would but not as intense or bloody (maybe damper for a little bit). Jen couldn't get to me so I braved the Max system with my train buddies ("Trainies" if you will) and was wandering around downtown Portland with these miscellaneous people for about two hours. I could go on for ages about the stories, but I'll only tell them when you ask specifically so I don't bore you. Needless to say, I love unplanned adventures. I'm pretty sure all my trainies were about ready to shoot me because I was having too much fun :) I then spent the next few days getting some wonderful quality time in with Jenna and Kyle, although it was mostly Jen that I saw. It has been so long since we had one-on-one time together like that, honestly it may have been years the way our lives are going, and those few days just reminded me once again how incredible and lovely of a sister I have and how thankful I am for her. She means so dang much to me, and I wouldn't take back that time we spent together for anything. I love you Jenna <3

Also during this little excursion, I got to feel the baby move and kick and basically throw a tantrum through my sisters cute little belly (which isn't so little anymore!) It was the most bizarre, strange and exhilarating experience I think I have ever had! I'm not going to lie to you, I cried... and we were at a movie that didn't warrant crying... I'm pretty sure some people may have been confused if they saw me. Then ma and pa came up and the Halls came up and we did New Years right by playing Pit with index cards and dressing up a Joey Harrington bobblehead.
The next day we watched the Ducks fight a vallient fight but sadly lose and then the Casebolts headed home. I had one day of packing and cramming in friends and than it was off to Spokane! I had quite the mobile break... not too break-ish if you ask me, but worth every minute :)

So now I'm back! Had some car trouble for the second time in the past few weeks, but I took Little Sally to the car doctor today and she hath been healed :) And I moved into my own room for the first time in two and a half years. It's crazy, I never realized how much stuff not that I had but Steph had. She was basically furnishing me! I had to start from scratch. But I had to move both of us out becaue our new roommate moved in tonight (her name is DJ and she seems incredibly nice and fun... so excited to have someone new around!) and I've been emailing Steph every day while she's gone giving her an earfull about how much crap she owns. But here are some pictures of my new room:

Now that I'm done moving in, I don't have to be a social recluse so I'm already planning my JanTerm adventures. Reconnecting with friends I haven't seen due to mismatched schedules, a roadtrip to Boise, ID to see a good friend and a to-do list that seems insurmountable will do the trick! My class, Belief in Wierd Things, is really cool and low key which is nice; nobody wants a hard class during JanTerm. The only thing that's missing is snow. We haven't gotten more than half an inch of ucky slush since I've been here. Not cool, Spokane, not cool.

Okay, this was an uber long wall post and I apologize, but if you made it this far I commend you! Hope you had as much fun reading it as I had experiencing it! I love you all and hope you had a wonderful holiday season! Let me know how it went, I would love to hear your crazy holiday stories as well :)

Peace out,
Chels

Sunday, December 20, 2009

HO HO HO!

Well, I'm home! Finally :) I am very happy to be back and... well, sleeping... I haven't been very useful otherwise... The past few weeks have been quite the wurlwind for many reasons. I spent one weekend on the Westside for the Christmas choir concert (thank you to all who came out... I hope the music meant as much to you as it and your presence meant to me). And the weekend after that, we had our Spokane concert series. In that way, I was kept pretty far away from my homework :) I was nominated as a choir officer this year so the time I would have spent studying I spent with the sick singers and coordination social events. Good stuff, huh?! :) Also, I finished my play which was a huge burden lifted off my shoulders. My friends said I was a proper prostitute so that's always good haha. That and I finished finals last week, finished Microbial Physiology FOREVER, and am getting prepped and rested for JanTerm. I will be finishing up my Psychology minor with Belief in Weird Things (yes, it's actually a class...) and playing in the snow (no, that is not a class... but if it were I'd already have a degree completed).

Anyway, lots of good stuff goin' on but little focus as to what they are... sorry! I've just been living about the same life and doing just about the same things, but would love to hear how you are doing! I hope you all have safe travels this holiday season, and enjoy family and friends!

With hope that you experience His perfect joy in His season,
Chels

P.S. Steph will be in South Africa all of January, and I would appreciate if you could send good juju vibes and prayers her way for safe travels and good lessons.

P.S.S. For those of you wondering, Coleson is doing better! His tumor is shrinking so we're just hoping that he will not need radiation before they can remove it... thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers.

P.S.S.S. I may be out of line, but I challenge you to remember what others in the world need this holiday season as opposed to what some may not even want...

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

1001 Spokanian Nights

Again, I am pictureless... but hello either way! I hope this finds you all well and ready for THANKSGIVING! I know, usually you don't need to prepare for a break, but holidays are the exception to the rule :) but it's worth it, because you get to spend time with the people you love. I can't wait to see my family! And if you haven't guessed, I'm home right now... smelly and tired and oh-so content! I think my parents are excited to smell my stench again :)

The last few weeks have been pretty fun-filled and action packed. Classes have been tuggin' along, getting ready for finals week in about three weeks. Oy... but I'm catching my revitalizing break now, even though I brought more homework and textbooks than clothes this time around. Also, the play I'm in is blocked, rehearsed and... well, over-rehearsed really... we open December 10, so fingers crossed that I make a good hooker! At least I have an alternative after I graduate if teaching doesn't work out :) juuuuuuust kidding! Also, choir is getting ready for its Christmas tour to the Westside. Funny news, my peers in the choir nominated me for choir office (I'm moving into the Choir White House next week...) so I actually am the choir's Social Coordinator for the year. I'm very excited, this means I get to plan social events for the choir during tour and throughout the year to build the community and whatnot (hmm... sounds awfully RA-miliar, right?!) and it starts with coordinating Secret Santa. So what did I do?! I dressed up as economy Santa for choir that day. By economy Santa, I mean I went to the dollar store, picked up some mop heads to fashion a beard and hair, a Santa hat and some glasses, and then I stuffed my belly with the clothes I changed out of. Ya know, the red shirt, white trim, black pants and brown/blue Nike's :) the choir thought it was pretty hysterical apparently, and I even wore my beard for a whole 20 minutes after I spoke in front of everyone! I started getting overheated at that point... that and the choir director couldn't stop giggling when he saw Santa singing hollily and jollily :)

Everything else is going great. I recovered from Feminight and my cold is slowly subsiding as my brain is slowly making an exodus out my nose... No big, it's not like I need it. And my Sudanese family are doing great; Sarah, the daughter, just turned 10 this past week. WOW! She's growing up so fast, and for the first time I saw her with her hair down. It was culturally appropriate for girls to have their hair back most of the time, so she was very excited at something so simple as wearing her hair down. And the baby is doing well :) It's funny, whenever these events happen with this family, they invade this one very VERY large Middle Eastern man (who wears tons of cologne and a nice suit at all times) who apparently is looking to wed. Always awkward, always fun to deal with. It's great having a 40-year-old man forced upon you! Don't worry, we always claim the "my boyfriend couldn't make it" and that usually solves the problem.

So Steph and I saw The Lion King on Sunday, and it was aMAzing! The music was beautiful, Mufasa's voice was b-e-a-Utiful, the set and costumes were beautiful... it was all beautiful! As a theatre techie, I was having a small panic attack from the glory that was their facilities. If you have the opportunity, please see it. Granted, it followed the movie exactly so was a little bit artistically stale, but it was TOTALLY worth sitting in the second to last row made in the theatre.

Quick prayer request: Coleson, the boy mentioned before, has been going through his chemo and is having a pretty hard time. He has a feeding tube, continually gets sick and is having MRI's in the next few days to see if the malignant tumor in his thigh will need radiation before it is surgically removed. He will already need radiation for the spots in his lungs, so we really hope he can have it just removed surgically. He also has been very sick with some sort of flu, so it's been a rougher few weeks for him than we hoped. If you could keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers, I'm sure they would appreciate it and feel your support :)

And finally, I have some pretty exciting news. For the past few years, the past few months especially, I have been feeling called to do mission work outside the country but didn't know when, where or how it would happen. Well, I know some may not believe in this, but I feel as though I got the call from God that answered those questions. So, this June I will be traveling to the Dominican Republic with the Foundation for Children in Need to work with orphans for a week! Everything has been wonderfully falling into place, and I really got a good feeling about this organization and this place, so I was officially accepted to the trip about a week and a half ago. Ever since I got the Call, I can't stop thinking about it. Every time I remember, I get very emotional. I can't wait to meet these kiddos and build relationships with them. Any prayers you could send my way as I prepare for this journey would be greatly appreciated!

Okay, I'm done blabbering my mouth for a while. I truly hope you all enjoy your Thanksgivings, spend it with those people you are most thankful to have in your life, and travel safe!

GOBBLE GOBBLE! (That's turkey-talk for "Love you!")
Chels

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Public Service Announcement :)

Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Whitworth choirs to present 2009 Christmas Festival Concert, "Ye Shall Have a Song"
The 2009 Whitworth University Christmas Festival Concert, "Ye Shall Have a Song," will take place in Bellevue, Seattle and Spokane, featuring the Whitworth Choir, the Whitworth Women's Choir, and, for the first time, the Whitworth Men’s Chorus. The production, built around themes of pilgrimage and song, will involve 110 student singers, accompanists and instrumentalists. For more information, please call (509) 777-3280.
The concert will include its title piece, Randall Thompson’s “Ye Shall Have a Song,” from The Peaceable Kingdom. The Whitworth Choir will sing the featured work of the program, John Rutter’s “Gloria,” which is accompanied by brass, organ, timpani and percussion. Other concert selections include “Cantate Domino,” by Jackson Berkey, Healey Willan’s “The Three Kings,” “Pilgrims’ Hymn,” by Stephen Paulus, Peter Louis Van Dijk’s, “Susa Ninna,” and “There is No Rose of Such Virtue,” a setting of the 15th-century English text composed specifically for the Whitworth Men’s Chorus and the 2009 Festival Concerts by Marc A. Hafso.
The Whitworth Choir and the Whitworth Men’s Chorus will perform under the direction of Marc A. Hafso, professor of music and director of choral activities. The Whitworth Women's Choir will perform under the direction of Debbie Hansen, associate director of choral activities and chair of the music department. Diana Trotter, professor of theatre, will serve as narrator, and Bonnie Robinson will serve as organist.Following is concert and ticket information for each performance location:

Bellevue
When: Saturday, Dec. 5, at 7 p.m.
Where: First Presbyterian Church of Bellevue, 1717 Bellevue Way NE

Seattle
When: Sunday, Dec. 6, at 3 p.m.
Where: First Presbyterian Church of Seattle, 1013 8th Ave.
Spokane
When: Friday, Dec. 11, at 8 p.m., and Saturday, Dec. 12, at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Where: First Presbyterian Church of Spokane, 318 S. Cedar St.

Tickets: $18 general admission, $15 for students and seniors 62 and older. Tickets may be purchased by calling (800) 532-4668, online at www.whitworth.edu/musictickets or at the information desk in the Hixson Union Building at Whitworth. A limited number of tickets may also be available for purchase at the door prior to each concert.
Located in Spokane, Wash., Whitworth is a private liberal arts university affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). The university, which has an enrollment of 2,700 students, offers 55 undergraduate and graduate degree programs.
Contacts:
Marc A. Hafso, professor of music and director of choral activities, Whitworth University
Joan Lack or Loree Swegle, music department program assistants, Whitworth University
Emily Proffitt, public information officer, Whitworth University, (509) 777-4703
This message was sent by Whitworth University 300 W. Hawthorne Road, Spokane, WA 99251Campus Telephone: 509.777.1000

Sunday, November 15, 2009

A Quick One

Hi there! I'm very sorry, this little witty ditty is going to be short and has no pictures, but I promise a more in depth one is to come in the upcoming weeks.

Been pretty busy around here. Between schoolwork, choir, the play, volunteering with the refugees, spending time with a child with cerebral palsy, a social life and planning a campus-wide womens retreat again, I have been fairly preoccupied. All are going very very well! I just got back from Feminight this afternoon (woot! I live! AGAIN!) and am about to pass out right... about... NOW!........... Just kidding, I guess I've got a little bit more wind in me. It was breathtaking at Camp Reed, and don't worry plenty went wrong. You know, like giving all the girls the wrong directions on how to get there (not my doing... and if I hear one more "well, if this were a MEN's retreat..." I may just crawl into a hidey-hole) and starting a small fire in the downstairs floor of the lodge (by the way, Camp Reed really needs to change out its fire detectors... we caught it as it happened but it was still pretty smokey and no alarm sounded). But besides that it was incredible :) Our speaker was phenomenal, the planned events were great, the dance party was HOPPIN' (I was the dj... my only stipulation to do it again :) ), the food was great (I had fun working in the kitchen the time I wasn't dancing) and we had over 100 girls go this time. It was such a blessing, I can't even begin. And I could talk forever but I won't because I know it's not the small details that makes it good. Just know that it was a wonderful time :)

To top off the wonderful time, I got a really bad burn on my finger (I was making like 6 grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch at Feminight for the vegetarians and... well, digit met grill...) and have a really bad head cold including runny nose and scratchy man voice that made it difficult to yell out announcements during the event. That on top of extreme fatigue from a busy weekend with one 10-minute break other than sleep equals me going to bed in approximately 7 minutes. I will hopefully be posting again soon with more stories (I'm so tired I can't think of anything right now...) so until then I love you all and have a fantastic week :)

With love,
Chels

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Dragging the Dog...

Hey there posse! So I couldn't really think of a title, and while I'm writing this I am sitting next to my window and see, for the millionth time, this older man drag his dog down the street. It's really very funny, I see him force this same dog down Ivanhoe every day and the dog always looks at me like, "he's not serious again, is he?!" I always chuckle to myself... so that's the reason behind the title. Very insightful and meaningful, I know... :)

All is well in Chelsealand. I had my midterms last week (a week earlier than everyone else; I think my professors wanted to plan midterms at a time when they thought none would be happening in other classes... except all my professors did it... good planning, guys :) ) and it was a killer. Between three research papers, three exams and teaching a lesson for a class, I was tired. AM tired. But I've been recovering. Last weekend, to prepare for the poopy-poop week I knew I would have, I absconded away with a few of my housemates to study in b-e-a-Utiful Coeur d'Alene and enjoy an evening of unplanned fanciness. We studied at this little coffee shop down by the water (and by study, I mean people watched and chatted) and then got dressed in the Coeur d'Alene Resort bathroom in our fanciest pantsiest dresses and had dinner and desert at the Dockside Restaurant there. It was wonderful to spend some time there with good friends and we were even joined by Mother Nature (it rained cats and dogs and gerbils while we were walking along the dock... of course when we were exactly halfway through the loop... wonderful...) The food was kind of pricy, so we decided to share a meal. A pasta sampler:
As you can see, not enough for four people (the picture even makes it look bigger than it was). So what did we get? That's right. We had a wonderful time, and I was really able to take my mind of the craziness that was the upcoming week.
A lot has been happening. Our Sudanese family had their baby (yay!) and we've been visiting the little guy on a regular basis. He's aDORable, and seems to like us :) here are a few pictures of Steph and I with the baby and Asim (now a Big Bro for the first time) with little Aseal.

I feel so old! Everyone is having babies and getting engaged and thinking about getting engaged and GAH! It's very frightening to think of all the crazy adulthood happening around me, but I am thoroughly enjoying my childhood. It's been a bit strange though...
In other news, classes have been going fine. Kinda stressful but fine. MicroPhys is still a time suck, but I feel like I'm finally getting on top of it. And I found out that the Women's Choir is touring to Seattle December 4-6... just saying :)

I decided, after a summer of theatretastic greatness, that I would audition for Whitworth's Festival of One Acts and got into a show! It's called Hello from Bertha and will be a real challenge for more than one reason. It's definitely a drama, and I will be playing a Jewish prostitute (yeah, wonder how that casting came about...) but I'm excited to put my acting shoes back on.

Steph and I went shopping yesterday for some fun stuff for Coleson and got him a bunch of army stuff from the army surplus. We really hope he'll like it, it's this whole army motif thing going on :) Coleson is doing fine. They'll be putting a feeding tube in in the next few days, but apparently that's pretty common. He just has no appetite and has been losing too much weight so there ya are. His family feels the support and love of their community and friends, so thank you again for your thoughts and prayers and know that it really means a lot to Steph and I. We are currently brainstorming on how to best advertise Coins for Coleson, but we'll be sure to let you know our progress :)

Well, I better get to work on things of a Feminight nature. Just know that I am doing very well, still learning a ton about myself, my faith and my place in the world, but am very happy doing it. I hope you are all doing well and hope to hear from you soon.

Love,
Chels

P.S. "What we do is less than one drop in the ocean, but if that drop were missing, the ocean would be lacking something." -Mother Theresa

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Kairos

Well helllloooooooooo everyone! I know it's been a long time, but please put down your torches and pitchforks, I intend to explain why I haven't written in three weeks. Everything has been insane and I haven't had much time for sleep much less communication (I've had to tell several tours, "don't worry, I swear I speak English... I'm just bilingual in Mumble Jumble, that's all"). I won't bore you with the details, but Microbial Physiology is consuming my academic life (don't worry, I won't let it get the rest of me... the academic part is a very small one so I'll just let it have it :) ). We have this huge research project that has been taking forever and we can't seem to get it right, and I haven't been doing well on other aspects of the class. AND I'M ACTUALLY TRYING! My other classes I could care less about, I haven't put an ounce of effort into them, and I'm acing them! How the heck does that work?! Kinda frustrating, but oh well. Steph has been extremely swamped with school too so we actually pulled two all-nighters (well, not technically, they were really 4:30am-ers but we had to get up at 7 anyway so I say it counts...) and were extremely delerious. If you were wondering what an all-nighter looks like, here you go:


Lots of sugar (in Orange Julius form) and music to keep us awake. I've been exhausted from school and everything else, but other than that life has been wonderful!


Choir is great, tours are great, my Sudanese kids are great (and about to become one more this week apparently... we didn't know mom was pregnant until a week and a half ago... wow...) and Feminight is underway. I am once again heading up advertising so that should be fun; the campus walls won't know what hit 'em :) Got some big stuff in store, but it'll be along the same line as last years so I won't bore you. This past weekend, I housesat for a professor and cared for her five (very old and very likely dying) animals and it was smelly, poop-filled, and yet TOTALLY worth the money. Just had to throw that out there :) As far as my house goes, everything is wonderful! We've been having great fun getting to know eachother, now call eachother sisters, and already have plans for living next year. As you can see, we're eating alright (this was my first attempt at chicken parmesean and I kicked it's clucking booty! Take a look):



We actually didn't have any regular mozeralla cheese so what you are looking at is deconstructed string cheese... mmmm, appetizing, isn't it?! And below is a picture of all my housemates and myself. From the right, it's Kenz, Steph, Andrea, Awbrey, Katie and I. Yup, that's the posse!


We've been having crazy dance parties during the week and other greatness to keep sane, so I've been very happy. I've found myself to be very reflective this past week also, trying to figure out some things and answer some big questions I've had for a while. Needless to say, I am trying to see what my faith is like while walking in the middle of the trail. Most people, myself included, find it very easy to give praise when they're on the mountain top because something is really great, and it can also be quite easy to seek Him when they're in the valley because nothing seems to be going right. But the true test of faith comes from traveling on the middle trail, when life is simply being lived. Well, at least I know that my life is to be lived for others. But if one wishes to exhale throughout their life, they need to learn to inhale. So I've been learning to inhale (aka foster my own spiritual health and taking care of myself, for those who didn't quite get the metaphor) and am continuing to learn. I'm just trying to figure out what this looks like. Sorry, I know this isn't what you wanted to read, just giving you a little peak into the topmost thoughts of my brain. Much more going on up there though, and if you're ever interested in talking about it please don't hesitate to contact me. I love these deep, weird conversations :)


I actually have two prayer requests to ask of you guys: first off, I just sent in an application for a Washington Council for Higher Education Board scholarship that may equal out to be worth a public college tuition. With every year of funding, I would commit myself to two years of teaching in Washington state, but seeing as how I was planning on it anyway... I definitely don't want everyone to pray that I'll get it, I just hope that you'll pray that the committee reaches out to those who need it most, whether that be me or not. Please pray that they have a clear mind in their decision-making and that the most deserving candidates receive the scholarships. I should know by November 30th so I'll let you know then :)

Also, and this is a big one, I ask that you all pray for a 6-year-old boy named Coleson Brink. Steph, my roommate for the past two years, has babysat Coleson since he was an infant up until this point along with his younger brother and new baby sister. Well, about a week and a half ago, Steph found out that Coleson was diagnosed with Ewing round cell sarcoma, a very rare childhood cancer. He has a tumor on his hip and was just admitted into the hospital for an 8-month long treatment of chemotherapy, surgery, more chemo and finally radiation. His mom and dad thankfully were donated housing by family in the Seattle area and get to have the two other kids stay with them (the plan otherwise was that they would week to week with alternating grandparents for the 8-month period and wouldn't see there mom and dad for days and weeks at a time). The survival rate, if it hadn't metastisized, would have been 80%. Well, they found malignent lumps in his lungs as well and he now has a 10-15% chance of making it. He's only 6! Steph is devastated, she felt as though he was one of her own family. Naturally, Coleson is extremely frightened and asks his parents a lot of tough questions, like "what is surgery? Does it hurt?" and apparently his little brother Logan, who's 4 years old, asks his mom and dad, "is Coleson gonna die?". This is tearing this family apart. So Steph and I are starting a coin drive on campus called Coins for Coleson where we are trying to raise money to buy him toys for while he is in the hospital and help the parents with medical bills as much as possible (dad had to quit his job to be with his family at the hospital). We know we can't help much, but we're going to try. So please, please pray for Coleson. And if you feel led to help out, just let me know. I'm not asking, just saying. Thank you for your prayers. Below is a picture of him:
Steph and I made him an army Build-a-Bear this weekend named Pvt. Ura Trooper (by the way, that really REALLY confused the woman checking us out... she was like "I don't get it, Oora Trooper?!") Life is just so incredibly precious, and it's amazing how little time we have sometimes. But in the time that I'm here, I want to make sure that my greatest gifts meet the world's greatest needs, and always remember that a smile is the beginning of love. Thanks for reading through this with me, hope to hear from you soon.
With love,
Chels